Sweet Karma

There are echoes of female vigilante benchmarks Ms 45 (aka Angel of Vengeance) and the Kill Bills in this femme fatale revenge thriller in as much as it features a gorgeous girl (model-turned-actress Shera Bechard) brutally dispatching members of a gang of Russian mobsters operating in Toronto who forced her sister into the sex trade and then murdered her. But this low-budget Canadian film co-written and directed by first-timer Andrew Thomas Hunt lacks the wit Tarantino’s opus, the grit of Abel Ferrara’s earlier film and the panache and impact of either. And despite its skuzzy production values and downbeat conclusion, the film also fails to achieve the kind of 1970s cult exploitation flick vibe that Hunt was evidently aiming for with his debut. Instead, Sweet Karma simply comes across as a pedestrian homage to other and much better films. All of which is shame, because there was promise in the initial idea. No extras.